Freestar

We’re hiring! The world’s most trusted publishers entrust their business to the Freestar team, and that’s not something we take lightly. If you’re a curious, proactive, adaptable expert passionate about putting publishers first, we want you to join our team. Freestar offers a fully remote work environment that values flexibility, autonomy, and collaboration. As you can see, we also have a lot of fun! Check out our open roles here: https://lnkd.in/gMzKffU

Performance isn't an accident—it's a byproduct of discipline. 🚴♂️📈 On the latest episode of The Publisher First Podcast, host Kurt Donnell sits down with Travis Wilky, President and Co-Founder of Calculated Conversions, LLC, to discuss what it really takes to drive measurable outcomes. Travis brings a uniquely performance-obsessed mindset to the digital media space, rooted in his background as a professional road cyclist in Europe. In this episode, they dive deep into how structure, accountability, and an intense attention to detail can completely transform your revenue strategy across programmatic, search, and CTV. (⬇️ Check out the clip below where Travis shares an unexpected lesson from his early days as a car salesman that helped shape his long and successful career in sales!) Listen to the full episode to learn how to build a culture of disciplined execution and scale your business the right way.

Google's introduction of AI-generated ads directly into conversational search experiences is yet another major shift affecting publishers' discovery patterns. The big shift here isn't the ad format itself. It’s that monetization is increasingly happening inside AI-generated experiences instead of publisher environments. As AI becomes one of the primary touchpoints between consumers and information, publishers are losing direct traffic, audience ownership, and visibility into how users arrive at their content. This doesn’t mean publishers lose relevance. It does, however, point to an even greater need for trusted content and strong audience relationships as the ecosystem becomes increasingly AI-driven. It also reinforces a growing operational challenge: publishers can’t afford fragmented monetization strategies that are built for an internet that is becoming extinct. Publishers that are operationally flexible, diversified across revenue streams, and able to adapt quickly will ultimately pull ahead. An interesting read that dives deeper from The Wall Street Journal's Patrick Coffee: https://lnkd.in/g7ZKGAQs

Why do the world's most trusted publishers trust Freestar? See for yourself:

At yesterday’s Tech Learning Series, John Ilacqua shared how Freestar is helping publishers maximize monetization through a publisher-first approach that prioritizes revenue growth, user experience, and site performance. Freestar provides a comprehensive monetization platform and managed services solution designed to help media companies optimize ad revenue across display, video, commerce, and emerging channels. By combining advanced yield technology, strategic demand partnerships, and performance-focused optimization, Freestar helps publishers scale sustainable revenue while maintaining a high-quality consumer experience. We were also happy to welcome Freestar founder David Freedman, CEO Kurt Donnell, and Phil Bohn. Thank you all for sharing your insights. #PublisherMonetization #AdTechInnovation #ProhaskaConsulting

Let’s face it: Ad block recovery figures can get a little fuzzy. Our EVP of Operations, Kyle P. Peluso, just authored a new article on ad blockers, and why recovery should be a part of a publisher’s experience, not a third-party add-on. When you anchor it in Publisher First principles and data transparency, you solve a revenue problem without creating a trust problem. That’s how he came up with Freestar Recovered. If you want a cleaner way to deal with ad blockers, have a read 👉 https://lnkd.in/gWGXkrNZ

AI bots aren’t just scraping your content. They’re quickly becoming one of your fastest-growing audiences. The question is how you capture value from them. Nearly half of web traffic today is driven by bots, yet most publishers lack clear visibility into who they are, what they’re doing, and how they impact the business. Join us on May 12th as our pubOS partner, TollBit, breaks down the evolving bot landscape, from the different types of agents accessing your site to why it’s increasingly important to understand and manage how your content is used. We’ll also cover the full range of approaches, including visibility, blocking, and monetization, and discuss how publishers are starting to rethink their strategy to balance control, access, and revenue in this new environment. Featured Speakers: Moderator: Lindsay Valdez, VP of Audience Strategy, Freestar Guest Speaker: Josh Stone, VP of Business Development & Partnerships, Tollbit To register for this event, sign up here: https://lnkd.in/g7iiQCRE

Publishers partner with Freestar to boost revenue without overloading their engineering teams. Our publisher-first platform is designed to plug in quickly, simplify ad operations, and deliver meaningful monetization gains with minimal dev lift. Ready to see what we can do for your site? Get in touch: https://lnkd.in/gQP2qkTX #Freestar #PublisherFirst #PublisherSuccess #PublisherGrowth #AdOpsExcellence #AdTechInnovation #RevenueOptimization

For many years, the trend was to add a new tool to your stack for every new obstacle: AI tools, analytics, and content quality; each layer on its own. But over time, this approach created a system that became increasingly complex to manage and harder to operate efficiently. According to Gartner, fewer than half of martech tools are even actively used—and just 15% of organizations are seeing strong performance and ROI from their stack. What used to be "flexibility" now just looks like fragmentation. Disconnected workflows, overlapping vendors, and disparate data sets have become the norm and the operational burden on publishers is growing. The industry is starting to realize that the current model isn’t sustainable, especially as AI becomes a bigger part of monetization and decisioning. AI doesn’t simplify a fragmented foundation. It builds on top of it, and in many cases, makes foundational inefficiencies more visible. With the shifts happening now, it should be less about adding a new fix-it layer and more about rethinking how the system is structured. Publishers don’t need more pieces to manage. They need better alignment across the ones that already exist. The next phase of adtech should be defined by how well companies can reduce complexity—bringing workflows, data, and monetization into a more unified system built for users.

Heroics feel good…until they become your operating model. ✍🏻 In a new article, our EVP of Operations Kyle P. Peluso breaks down what it looks like to run publisher-first work at scale, across onboarding, publisher support, and ad yield, while keeping practical AI grounded in real workflows. The key? Earn trust by giving people the information they need to make good calls—then let them make those calls!